


Love Notes

by valkyriors



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Asking Out, F/M, First Date, Fluff, M/M, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-23
Updated: 2020-06-23
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:07:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24878185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/valkyriors/pseuds/valkyriors
Summary: spencer and reader start passing notes in the bullpen
Relationships: Spencer Reid/Reader
Comments: 1
Kudos: 131





	Love Notes

“Hey, Spence?” You called across to his desk adjacent to yours, making his head tilt up to you. He mumbled and raised an eyebrow at you in return, dropping the case file down onto the table. “You ever pass notes in high school?”

“I don’t think so.” He shrugged and turned back to his work, but you pouted at him. How could he never have done that?

Yet again you found yourself spiralling into thoughts about how you’d love to meet him as a teenager. You bet you’d have had the biggest crush on him. There was something about the idea of the cute, teenage genius that you knew your younger self would adore. Or maybe it was the cute way he rambled. 

“Not even once? Middle of a boring geography class?” You pleaded at him, letting your hand reach over to the partition of your desks. 

He shook his head as a no, giving you a defensive look at your clearly upset face. 

Sighing, you quickly grabbed the post-its and a pen from your desk, scribbling on as quick as you could. The Doctor watched you inquisitively, though he already knew what you were doing. 

In silence you reached the small note across to him, which he took with a smile and another shake of his head. 

“Hey. <3” It read simply. 

Looking up at you, you sent him a quick teasing smile, then pretended to be focused on your work again. Spencer felt his heart warm at your antics, as he always did (as much as he protested), and scribbled down a reply on his own set of post-its.

He threw it across to you in a far less subtle manner than you had managed, but you kept your head down on the page and grinned as you took what he gave you. 

“Hello.”

You couldn’t help but feel your heart flutter like a schoolgirl at the note and the feeling of him indulging you, even if his handwriting was bordering on shockingly bad. 

Letting your finger run across the piece of paper for a minute, you wondered if he could analyse your handwriting and figure out how much you fancied him- after all, nothing else seemed to clue him in. 

You decided to slip the note he gave you into one of the many notebooks on your desk, just to keep it safe for later. Then you scribbled down a reply as quickly as you could. 

Taking the new note from you he bit down on his lip, letting his eyes run over the words as quickly as he could. Why did his body pump with excitement and thrill passing notes?

He wondered if this was the kind of thing he missed out on in school, or if he’d have had a much better time in high school if you were there too- he liked to think so. 

“What’s a nice guy like you…” He flipped it over to the other side. “Doing in a place like this? :)”

A smile tugged at his lips as he read it, even the smiley face as the end seemed to warm his heart just a little bit. The act of passing notes across the literal FBI bullpen seemed so childish and silly, so why did you make him feel so good about it?

He jotted down another note after a minute, making sure he was at least doing some of his case work in the meantime. You were incredibly distracting. 

“Aren’t I meant to ask you that?” You took the new note from him and felt heat rush to your cheeks when you read it. God, you had it bad for the Doctor. You wished you could imagine you were both 18 and in love- you’d love to be his first love, it’d be such a privilege. 

Biting on your lip as you contemplated, you wrote down an answer and slid it across to him before you could overthink it. 

“Are you flirting with me, Dr.?” As Spencer read your words his head snapped up to you, making eye contact with you for the first time. His wide eyes look into yours and he visibly gulped. Shit, should you not have written that?

“Flirting?” He said aloud, with a tad more volume than necessary, making him cough and look around the room. No one was paying attention to him but you, and you had a panicked look on your face. 

Your cheeks seemed to tinge bright red, your brain stuttering to apologise before things could go further. You hadn’t meant to make him uncomfortable by flirting with him, you wouldn’t even mind if he rejected you- it was more so the ‘being called out in the middle of the bullpen’ that had your heart racing. 

“Sorry.” You practically whispered it, your fight or flight response kicking in. Deciding not to run away, you let one of your hands grip onto the pages in front of you anxiously. As much as you didn’t want to make eye contact with Spencer, your eyes seemed to pull you there anyway- his brow was furrowed. 

“I-Is that what you were doing? Flirting?” He seemed entirely genuine with his question, nervous, but genuine. Hadn’t he picked up on it?

It had become your general assumption that he lightly went along with your flirting out of friendliness, or as not to shoot you down. You didn’t realise he was unaware… So did that mean he was flirting back unintentionally? You were sure he didn’t act the same with anyone else.

“Is that okay?” You asked unassuredly, pursing your lips as you looked into him. He looked as beautiful as ever, even as his brain tried to process all of his crashing thoughts. 

“Um, yeah. Yeah.” He repeated with a shy smile, trying not to let his nerves catch up to him. “Do you do that a lot? F-flirt, I mean.”

Trying not to stumble at his question you cleared your throat quickly, running it over in your head. Should you be honest? You weren’t entirely sure what was happening right now. He looked like a cute deer caught in the headlights, but you didn’t want to embarrass him. 

“With other people? Not really. With you?” You looked up at him once again, taking in the way his eyes were looking into yours. “Yeah, all the time.”

“Oh.” He squeaked back at you, breaking eye contact once again. Your whole body itched to do something, feeling like you’d completely overstepped your boundaries. As much as you liked Spencer you knew he wasn’t always good with people, and you had no idea what his personal life was like. You hoped to God you hadn’t intruded, he was your co-worker for Christ’s sake. 

“Is that because…”

“Yes.” You answered before he could finish his sentence, knowing he might not even make it to the end. You wanted the situation to be over as soon as possible. Maybe you could get Garcia to convince him you’re not a total freak. 

“Um..” Spencer’s eyes seemed to find their way back to yours, taking in the anxiety that seemed to fill you. You weren’t often anxious, not as anxious as you seemed to be right now, making the heat within him rise. 

He’d never felt so embarrassed for being obtuse about something, but maybe it was because he really liked you. “Would you like to go out sometime, then? F-for coffee?”

The breath hitched in your throat at the question, your heart beating just a little bit more than it was already. You wanted to go out with him more than anything, so you practically short-circuited at the chance to do so. 

“Really?” You face-palmed at your own question. “Yes, absolutely.” You couldn’t push your words out fast enough, making you both smile again. 

You felt strangely nerve-wracked, like you were being asked out for the first time in your life. The same nerves seemed to cross Spencer’s face for a moment too, but you were too busy smiling at each other to care. 

“Maybe not coffee, though. I think someone needs to regulate your caffeine intake.” You raised an eyebrow at him, trying to return to your normal composure (but your smile wouldn’t give).  
He nodded at you pleasantly, not letting out the usual noise of complaint he did when people mentioned his coffee. “How about ice cream?”

“Ice cream sounds even better.” He replied with that same small tone, the warmness to his cheeks still evident. 

You watched him for an extra moment as he returned to his files, slightly more bothered about keeping up workplace appearances than you seemed to be. You traced from his eyebrows to his lips in your mind, taking in the sight of the happiness that remained on his face. You probably looked just as dorky, but you’d never felt so happy regardless.


End file.
